Mar 16 1979
From The Space Library
The DOD launched two spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Titan 3D, with no word on mission or orbital elements. A later report in Aviation Week & Space Technology said that the 10:30 a.m. local time launch put a Lockheed-built high-resolution film-return satellite in an orbit with 244-kilometer apogee, 177-kilometer perigee, and 96.4° inclination, to supplement a KH-11 high-resolution recon vehicle that had been operating in space since June 1978, furnishing data by digital transmission rather than film returned to Earth in reentry capsules. The digital system allowed much longer life for this type of spacecraft, whose usefulness did not depend on depletion of its film pod. "As is often the case with film-return spacecraft," said Aviation Week & Space Technology, the March 16 launch had included a piggyback payload, probably a ferret mission, put in orbit with 625-kilometer apogee, 623-kilometer perigee, and 95.7° inclination. (WTR cover Mar 16/79; Av Wk, Apr 9/79, 18)
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